For years, millennials were criticized as job-hoppers, idealists, and a generation reluctant to settle into traditional leadership roles. That narrative is quickly becoming outdated.
Across Haywood County, millennial women are stepping into some of the community’s most important nonprofit leadership positions. They are expanding grant portfolios, investing in buildings and infrastructure, hiring strong teams, and finding new ways to serve some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
Among them are Crystal Snover, executive director of WNC Alliance; Julie Cloninger, executive director of Haywood Pathways Center; Abby Bearden, CEO of KARE House; and Dr. Sara Vogel, executive director of REACH of Haywood County.
What makes this group notable is not simply that four millennial women are leading major organizations. It is how they are leading them.
Their organizations address domestic and sexual violence, childhood abuse and neglect, homelessness, hunger, trauma, and mental health. On paper, those may look like separate missions. In reality, the people they serve frequently need several of those systems at the same time.
That overlap is especially visible during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence rarely exists in isolation. It can affect housing stability, children, mental health, finances, safety, and access to basic needs. In Haywood County and across Western North Carolina, each of these organizations plays a different role in addressing those consequences. REACH provides direct services and shelter for survivors. KARE House supports children affected by abuse and family violence. WNC Alliance provides trauma-informed advocacy, clinical care, and training. Haywood Pathways Center helps address homelessness and housing instability, which can become urgent concerns when someone leaves an abusive relationship.
Together, their work reflects a broader truth about domestic violence: no single agency can solve it alone.
That has made collaboration central to the way these leaders think about their work.
At WNC Alliance, Snover brings more than 15 years of experience serving underserved communities in Western North Carolina. Her leadership has focused on identifying gaps in existing systems, building partnerships to address them, and strengthening organizations’ capacity to respond as community needs change. WNC Alliance provides specialized therapeutic care, advocacy, training and capacity building throughout North Carolina’s seven far western counties. Rather than duplicating services already available in local communities, Snover sees the organization’s regional role as helping strengthen the network around survivors and stepping into gaps that individual agencies may not have the resources or specialized expertise to address.
Last year, WNC Alliance served 134 child survivors, provided 1,130 trauma-informed victim services, delivered 834 mental health therapy sessions, and provided 296 advocacy supports. It also trained 523 educators, caregivers, and service providers in trauma-informed practices. For Snover, collaboration is essential to serving people well. Survivors and their families do not experience their needs in organizational silos, and the systems designed to support them cannot afford to operate that way either.
Cloninger, who is not a millennial but honored to be on the same page as these three young leaders, leads Haywood Pathways Center, which provides shelter, meals, transitional housing, and supportive services to people experiencing hunger and homelessness. In 2025, Pathways served 70,749 meals and provided 18,609 nights of shelter to 368 individuals. More than half of individuals exiting its programs moved into housing or reunited with family.
Cloninger first served as volunteer coordinator and assistant director. She is honored to carry on the very good work of those that had the vision and leadership for converting the old prison to be a place of hope and transformation for our houseless neighbors. The 24/7 rhythm of housing, food, and wrap-around services requires skill, compassion, resilience, and attentive presence, which comes at a cost to the 14 staff members. As the leader, Cloninger has focused on staff growth and relationship development, bringing stabilization to the organization. She intends to reflect the truth that we are all ones in whom Christ dwells and delights. She is grateful for those who respond to the question, “Am I my brother’s/sister’s keeper?” with the answer, “Yes, I am. Yes, we are,” recognizing we cannot do this work of loving our community alone.
The KARE House is the Children’s Advocacy Center serving Haywood County, supporting children affected by abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Through a multidisciplinary team approach, KARE coordinates services so children and families don’t have to navigate complex, disconnected systems on their own. KARE serves more than 250 Haywood County children each year and also provides prevention education and trauma-focused mental health therapy.
In 2026, Bearden became CEO of KARE House after five-and-a-half years with the organization, serving in several roles, including assistant director. During her time at KARE, she has been part of a period of significant growth and change as the organization has more than doubled in size over the past five years and recently expanded into a larger facility to better meet the needs of the community. As CEO, Bearden will continue building on KARE’s longstanding foundation while helping guide the organization’s next chapter, ensuring its programs and services evolve alongside the needs of the children and families it serves.
Vogel took over REACH of Haywood County in 2025 after a career in higher education, Title IX, counseling and sexual violence prevention. Under her leadership, REACH has expanded fundraising and grant development, invested in staff and prevention programming, and purchased its first permanent advocacy and administrative center during the organization’s 40th anniversary year. REACH continues to provide 2,000 nights of emergency shelter, advocacy for over 400 people a year, counseling, and prevention education for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and elder abuse.
Across all four organizations, there is a shared understanding that growth is not simply about making one nonprofit larger. It is about strengthening the network surrounding the people they serve.
A child receiving services from KARE may live in a family affected by domestic violence. That parent may need REACH. A survivor leaving violence may suddenly face homelessness and need Pathways. A child or adult living with trauma may need specialized treatment through WNC Alliance.
For Snover, Cloninger, Bearden, and Vogel, those connections are not competition. They are the work.
That means sharing resources, making referrals, building partnerships, and investing in teams capable of walking alongside people through complicated circumstances.
It also represents something encouraging about Haywood County itself; the county is attracting and retaining experienced leaders who are willing to invest their talent locally. Their organizations are securing grants, improving facilities, expanding programs, and building professional teams that show up every day for people experiencing some of the hardest moments of their lives.
The result is a nonprofit community that is becoming more connected, more ambitious, and increasingly focused on what can be accomplished together, ultimately making Haywood County a safer place for all.
For residents looking to learn more, partner or get involved, Crystal Snover can be reached at director@30thalliance.org; Julie Cloninger and Haywood Pathways Center can be contacted at director@haywoodpathways.org; Abby Bearden can be reached at aBearden@karehouse.org; and Dr. Sara Vogel can be reached at sarav@reachofhaywood.org.